Armed Services Committee

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Armed Services Committee cut funding for Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-22 fighter plane yesterday in work on the fiscal 1998 defense budget, Sen. Carl Levin said.Levin, a Michigan Democrat and the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, told reporters the committee also approved funding the Clinton administration requested for McDonnell Douglas Corp.'s F/A-18E/F fighter, and moved to prohibit funding for additional Northrop Grumman Corp. B-2 bombers.Finally, the committee approved a cooperative production arrangement for the U.S. Navy's newest submarines that General Dynamics Corp.

PRESIDENT CLINTON, newly re-elected but facing a formidable 10-vote Republican majority in the Senate, is putting together a brand new foreign policy team. Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Secretary of Defense William Perry are leaving. With the world in perpetual crisis or semi-crisis, Mr. Clinton can ill-afford protracted confirmation fights over his nominees to fill these two key posts. If he really wants to work with the GOP opposition, here is where he has to start.Would-be successors at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon will face hearings before two crusty Republican southerners -- Sen. Jesse Helms, head of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Strom Thurmond, chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

WASHINGTON -- Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee have called for a $270 billion defense budget for next year, $14 billion above President Clinton's proposal.The extra money would forestall another decline in what the Republicans regard as an underfunded Pentagon budget that is harming military readiness and hampering weapons modernization.In a letter dated Wednesday to the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, New Mexico Republican Pete V. Domenici, the 11 Republicans on the Armed Services Committee said the increase was "the only prudent course" to counter the "woefully deficient" readiness of U.S. forces to enter combat.

WASHINGTON -- You might think the defense establishment and pro-military Republican politicians would be the best of friends, possibly even soul mates. Not so.The initial exchanges between Pentagon leaders and GOP lawmakers who want to strengthen the nation's defenses have produced a striking level of tension.For example:* Sen. Strom Thurmond, the GOP chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has told the service chiefs to "look to the head of their chain of command" -- meaning President Clinton -- ** not to Congress, to place blame for any lack of war-fighting funds.

ROCK HILL, S.C. -- On Dec. 7, 1941, Adm. Husband E. Kimmel commanded the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.Kimmel's family has fought for nearly a half-century to clear the admiral's name, claiming they have documents that prove Washington officials failed to forward information that could have aided him in his defense of the strategic naval base.Today in Washington, the family will finally be heard.Sen. Strom Thurmond, the Senate Armed Services Committee's chairman, will co-chair a hearing about the late admiral and his Army counterpart, Lt. Gen. Walter Short, with Rep. Floyd Spence, the House Armed Services Committee's chairman.

In an attempt to bolster sagging applications to the country's military academies, a Senate committee yesterday approved a measure that would reduce the active duty requirement for graduates from six years to five.The provision, supported by Naval Academy Superintendent Adm. Charles R. Larson and by the superintendents of the other service academies, is expected to be brought before Congress before the summer break next month. The other academies are the Military Academy at West Point and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Washington. -- For more than a year Republican members of the Congress (and a few Democrats) have been worrying about the impact on American military readiness of deep cuts in the Pentagon budget, of downsizing military forces, and of new, non-traditional missions such as peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance and nation-building.These worries intensified as times passed and military failures multiplied. They were expressed in comments by Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz.,: ''It is difficult to ignore the parallels between Eagle Claw [the Carter Administration's failed attempt to rescue U.S. hostages in Iran]

WASHINGTON -- Just in time for Halloween, the Democrats have put up posters around the country featuring likely members of the House and Senate leadership if Republicans take over Congress next year -- a prospect they hope voters will find truly frightening.Newt Gingrich of Georgia as House speaker. Bob Dole of Kansas Senate majority leader. North Carolina's archconservative Jesse Helms as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And Alphonse M. D'Amato, the combative New Yorker who used his seat on the Senate Banking Committee to open an inquiry into the involvement of President and Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Whitewater matter, as the new chairman of that committee.

WASHINGTON -- You might think that Rep. Ronald V. Dellums would be in his element these post-Cold War days on Capitol Hill. A California Democrat with roots deep in the liberalism of the 1960s, he now serves as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.How sweet it should be for an anti-war protester who had "Onward Christian Soldiers" removed as too bellicose from the hymnal at his regular place of worship, the Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, Calif., to be legislative overseer of military downsizing.

Washington -- The Senate Armed Services Committee endorsed yesterday President Clinton's new policy to allow homosexuals to serve in the military, but the panel added a provision that would allow the defense secretary to restore the practice of asking recruits about their sexuality if the Pentagon believes it is necessary to maintain combat readiness.Pentagon officials said the provision was only congressional guidance, not binding language, and did not substantively alter the administration's plan.

WASHINGTON - -House Republicans passed over Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett of Maryland yesterday in choosing a new top Republican for the Armed Services Committee. The powerful post of ranking Republican went to Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon of California, a more junior member of the panel. He replaces Rep. John M. McHugh of New York, who was selected by President Barack Obama to be the next Army secretary. The closed-door decision was a vote of no confidence in Bartlett by the Republican leadership, which usually follows seniority in assigning key positions.

WASHINGTON - -President Barack Obama nominated yesterday as secretary of the Army a nine-term Republican congressman whose upstate New York district is home to the 10th Mountain Division, which is said to lead all other units in overseas deployments. Rep. John M. McHugh, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, becomes the second Republican that Obama has selected for a senior Defense Department post. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, appointed to the top Pentagon post by President George W. Bush, was asked to stay on in the new administration.

WASHINGTON -- Maryland's congressional delegation defended yesterday the process that will move thousands of military jobs to the state as cost-effective and good for the country, after criticism from other states that spawned an oversight hearing. The federal base realignment and closure plan will ultimately save the military millions of dollars, eliminating duplication of services, improving national defense and improving efficiency, said Heather Moeder Molino, deputy chief of staff for Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, a Baltimore County Democrat.

Gen. Peter Pace - the first Marine Corps officer to serve as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - is being precipitously let go. In a surprise announcement last week, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said that General Pace wouldn't be renominated to a second term. Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chief of naval operations, would take over when the general's term expires Sept. 30. As the highly qualified, deeply respected Pace is being ushered out the door, it is reasonable to wonder why. Is it because he was doing a lousy job?

WASHINGTON -- Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi picked Texas congressman and former border patrol agent Silvestre Reyes yesterday to be the next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, ending what had become a distracting fight among Democrats over who should get the key post. Reyes will occupy a key position for Democrats seeking to use their newfound majority status to challenge the Bush administration on a range of national security issues, including conduct of the war in Iraq and the capture and interrogation of terrorism suspects abroad.

Gordon Lee, 71, the chubby child actor who played Spanky McFarland's little brother "Porky" in Little Rascals comedies, died Oct. 16 in Minneapolis after battling lung and brain cancer. Mr. Lee played one of the younger members in the Our Gang shorts in the 1930s, appearing in more than 40 of them from 1935 to 1939. The comedies, produced by Hal Roach, became known as The Little Rascals when shown on TV in the 1950s. Among the films Mr. Lee appeared in were Bored of Education, which won the Oscar for best one-reel short subject in 1937.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Armed Services Committee cut funding for Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-22 fighter plane yesterday in work on the fiscal 1998 defense budget, Sen. Carl Levin said.Levin, a Michigan Democrat and the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, told reporters the committee also approved funding the Clinton administration requested for McDonnell Douglas Corp.'s F/A-18E/F fighter, and moved to prohibit funding for additional Northrop Grumman Corp. B-2 bombers.Finally, the committee approved a cooperative production arrangement for the U.S. Navy's newest submarines that General Dynamics Corp.

PRESIDENT CLINTON, newly re-elected but facing a formidable 10-vote Republican majority in the Senate, is putting together a brand new foreign policy team. Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Secretary of Defense William Perry are leaving. With the world in perpetual crisis or semi-crisis, Mr. Clinton can ill-afford protracted confirmation fights over his nominees to fill these two key posts. If he really wants to work with the GOP opposition, here is where he has to start.Would-be successors at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon will face hearings before two crusty Republican southerners -- Sen. Jesse Helms, head of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Strom Thurmond, chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

In an attempt to bolster sagging applications to the country's military academies, a Senate committee yesterday approved a measure that would reduce the active duty requirement for graduates from six years to five.The provision, supported by Naval Academy Superintendent Adm. Charles R. Larson and by the superintendents of the other service academies, is expected to be brought before Congress before the summer break next month. The other academies are the Military Academy at West Point and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.

ROCK HILL, S.C. -- On Dec. 7, 1941, Adm. Husband E. Kimmel commanded the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.Kimmel's family has fought for nearly a half-century to clear the admiral's name, claiming they have documents that prove Washington officials failed to forward information that could have aided him in his defense of the strategic naval base.Today in Washington, the family will finally be heard.Sen. Strom Thurmond, the Senate Armed Services Committee's chairman, will co-chair a hearing about the late admiral and his Army counterpart, Lt. Gen. Walter Short, with Rep. Floyd Spence, the House Armed Services Committee's chairman.